Summary: If you have ever wondered what happened to Humpty Dumpty after he fell, then this is the book for you. It is shaped like a castle, has die cut doors and peek through windows, and a rhyming text. Humpty also has a positive attitude that is perfect for the youngest reader.

When it's time to cook...

You'll need:

one hard boiled egg

one piece of bread

food safe marker or food coloring

peanut butter or other bread topping

To make:

1. First, I hard boiled a few eggs. I think everyone knows how to hard boil an egg, but I put my eggs in a pot, cover them with water and bring that to a boil. Once it boils, I remove the pot from the heat, cover it and let it sit for ten minutes. Then I remove the eggs from the water and place them in a bowl of ice until they are cool enough to handle. Using this method has worked great - I have never had green yolks!

2. I used a Wilton Food Writer pen to draw the face on a hard boiled egg. These pens are great for making fun food, and they come in different colors. If you do not want to purchase a food safe marker, dip a q-tip in food coloring to draw the face on your eggshell.

3. Then I spread peanut butter on a piece of bread and cut it into squares and rectangles.

4. I then assembled it on a plate to look like a wall. If peanut butter doesn't work for you, any topping will do - jelly, cream cheese, almond butter, etc.

Finally, Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall and it looks like he is about to fall!

Little Books for Little Cooks is a monthly feature that focuses on creating some edible fun with your little one. We will share a fun book to read with your little one along with a cooking activity to do that ties in with the featured book. Sometimes there may be actual cooking involved…and sometimes just fun!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

What I love about nursery rhymes is that they are short and simple and easy to incorporate during the day. You can read the rhymes, sing them, create crafts or even play games with these stories. I’ve had fun thinking of ways to get kids moving with nursery rhymes. I came up with several active ways to tell nursery rhymes and listed them below.

Hickory Dickory Dock:

Hickory, dickory, dock,

The mouse ran up the clock.

(We used a foam puzzle to be our clock, but you could draw one with chalk on the driveway or garage floor, use a length of string, or masking tape too.)

The clock struck one,

The mouse ran down,

Hickory, dickory, dock.

I sang the song while my daughter ran up and down the clock. This was a simple way to practice the rhyme and move those muscles!

Jack Be Nimble:

We did this fun activity while studying about Jack earlier this year. I wrote the letter J all over our driveway with chalk. My girls jumped on all the letter j’s and then jumped over the candle stick.

Jack and Jill: Have your child practice doing the log-roll while the rhyme is being read.

Simple Simon/Little Jack Horner: Set up a simple obstacle course with a couple of chairs. Give your child an empty pie-plate to balance on their head while they walk around the chairs.

Wee Willie Winkie: Place several pairs of slippers in a pile. Have your child run to the pile, find a matching pair of slippers and put it on, and then run back to the starting point.

The Crooked Man: Tape a very crooked and winding path with masking tape onto the floor. Have your child start at one end and wind around to the finish.

Yankee Doodle: Make a stick-horse and gallop around the room while singing the rhyme.

Diddle, Diddle, Dumpling My Son John: Have your child see how fast they can put their socks and shoes on by themselves. Then see how fast they can take them off.

These are just a few ideas! Can you think of other active nursery rhyme games? If so, please share with us in the comments.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

I am a stay at home mom of four children ~ two boys and two girls ranging in age from 5 months to 14 years. I am currently blogging at Snacks and Stories where I share our favorite books and fun snacks to go with them.

Here at Totally Tots, I will be sharing many of the snack ideas in the monthly feature Little Books for Little Cooks. Looking forward to sharing some fun ideas with you!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Emily and Juliette love using rubber stamps to make pictures, so I decided to turn them into a learning activity too. We used our Melissa & Doug Baby Farm Animals Stamp Set and Emily had a great practicing her numbers with it.

I folded a piece of white paper to make 8 even spaces. At the top of each box I wrote the directions. For example, I see 4 red pigs.

First, Emily read the directions. If you are doing this with a younger child you could read the words to them and if possible have them read the number.

Then she used the animal stamps to fill in the boxes. If you don’t have a stamp set you could also use different types of stickers. Emily counted to herself while she was working and then we counted together to make sure she had the right amount.

This activity was great for numeral recognition, practicing 1:1 correspondence, fine motor skills and color recognition.

Little Hands-on ABC’s and 123’s is a bi-monthly feature that focuses on practical and simple ideas that you can do at home to help your tot develop their letter and number skills.

Monday, February 20, 2012

I'm a big believer in letting art be open-ended for children. Meaning, there is no "right way" to make art. While working toward a certain end-product can be fun and have value (following directions, staying in a theme, etc.), I also think that children should be allowed to make art for art's sake.

One way to let children make art freely, is to provide them with a variety of materials and let them go. My favorite way to do this is with a "Collage Box". A Collage Box is basically a box with a variety of materials for children to make collages with.